Surfing by numbers

This year the WSL has introduced personalised numbers for all surfers on the World Tour. A way to align a number with a hero and (we think) a way to sell merchandise off the back of those signature digits. Who chose what and why did they choose it? We grabbed the Quik pro team and got the breakdown.

Jeremy Flores #40 - My postcode in my home town of Hossegor is 40150 so I went with 40. I wanted 69 but they (WSL) wouldn’t give it to me because it would cause too much “suspicion”.

Matt Banting #94 - I went with the year I was born; 1994. I asked for 69 like Jeremy but got told no, even though I said it was because 1969 was the year Quiksilver was founded.

Wiggolly Dantas #06 - I wanted 16 because I was born on 16 December 1989 but Kai Otton already had it. So i chose 06 because its my lucky number.

Freddy Patacchia #50 - Right now (Quiksilver Pro) my rashvest says #88. I chose that because of my home town of Hawaii’s area code and because…aces and eights man, you never fold, you always go for it. But Steph (Stephanie Gilmore) has #88, something to do with the symbol for infinity. I can’t have the same number as a 6x World Champion so I’m changing to #50. Hawaii’s is America's 50th state and the 50th star on the American flag. I’ll be changing over to that number at Bells.